1a: Experimental Projects
The two projects below made use of household equipment and materials, and low-temperature firings, leaving the integrity of the clay and the carbon trapping effects in a frail and precarious state.
See archive.
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Mujer que llora (Woman who cries) tells the story of a woman filled with grief and sadness, who sits alone upon a highland ridge contemplating her isolation. The way in which the vessel holds back light from entering the cavernous space inside of it, leaving the darkness to sit within its deep empty folds, vitrifies the loneliness of this woman. She sits there, grief etched on her body, while also being the very cave within which she hides. The curvatures are inspired by the voluminous form of an Andean woman in her traditional dress, and the vast landscapes upon which many live. After being bisque-fired in an electric kiln, this piece was stuffed and covered extensively in compostable food scarps, enclosed in a paper bag, and fired with charcoal in a small barbeque.
Mujer que llora
^ Mid-fire stoneware , Cone 06, carbon trapping, d. 18cm
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Hoodoo Village (Family) is a collection of forms of varying functionality, that come together to make a village of warm, earthen dwellings. This imagined village is set on a desert-like plateau, with each home reflecting a sense of idyllic welfare . The purity and warmth of the yellow stone alludes to the state of familial comfort shared between these different spaces and those who inhabit them. At night, the fire within each home glows powerfully within its walls, and escapes onto the plateau through whatever direction each distinct opening allows. The rough and unfinished quality of the surface lines offer both a youthful inexperience and antiquity to the utopian community residing here. These pieces were fired twice, at a bisque and semi-mature temperature, with charcoal in an in-the-ground brick kiln. During the second firing they were unevenly covered by wood pellets, leaving behind these black effects.
Hoodoo Village (Family)
^ Low-fire terra cotta body , Cone 03.5, carbon trapping, h. 20-30cm